


Festival of Lights

by masquerade97



Series: Jewish!Cas [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Hanukkah, M/M, New Relationship, jewish!cas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-07
Updated: 2015-12-07
Packaged: 2018-05-05 12:50:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5375816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/masquerade97/pseuds/masquerade97
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Thanksgiving, everyone throws themselves into the Christmas spirit. Castiel doesn't have a problem with Christmas, but it would be nice to be able to see Hanukkah represented somewhere.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Festival of Lights

**Author's Note:**

> December 6, 2015 was the first night of Hanukkah. I had a hard time finding Hanukkah stories, so I figured I'd write one for myself.
> 
> Happy Hanukkah!

Thanksgiving had been over for exactly 12 hours when the first Christmas decorations went up around the dorms.

The only reason Cas knew this definitively was because he hadn’t been able to go home over the break and was on the way to stuff his laundry in the wash early on the morning of November 27th when he saw that one of the other people in his hall was already decorating his door.

Cas sighed and ignored it, as he did every year.

Dean got back to campus on November 29th, with almost everyone else.

“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas,” he said with a laugh as he wrestled his bag through the door. “I guess you already saw the decorations though.”

“Yes, I saw them,” Cas said, sounding tired. He looked up briefly from his book.

Dean’s brow knit as he set his bag on his bed to start unpacking. “Something wrong?” he asked.

Cas shrugged, going back to his book.

A few minutes passed in silence while Dean put his things away; the only sound came from Cas turning the page in his novel.

“Do you have something against Christmas?” Dean finally asked, shoving his bag back under his bed when he had finished unpacking it.

“Nothing at all,” Cas said simply.

“Then what’s the problem?” Dean asked. He’d never seen someone so lacking in enthusiasm over the holidays.

“I’m Jewish,” Cas said plainly, not looking up from his book. “It’s disheartening to go through three months at the end of the year with Christmas set-ups in every store. And everyone says ‘Merry Christmas!’ as if that’s the default.”

“Oh,” Dean said, not entirely sure how he should respond to that. He felt like he should apologize, but he wasn’t sure if that was what he needed to do.

Cas heard something in Dean’s voice and looked up at his roommate. Dean was standing by his bed, facing Cas, looking like he was trying to find a way out of the situation. “It isn’t your fault, Dean,” Cas said. “You don’t control everyone else.”

“Yeah, but I assumed you celebrated Christmas too,” he said, guilt coming through in his voice.

“Well, now you know,” Cas said, a small smile on his lips. “I’m not mad at you Dean. It’s not your fault that you were taught everyone celebrates Christmas.”

Dean nodded, trying not to look too relieved. “When’s Hanukkah then?” he asked.

“It starts December 6th,” Cas said.

A look of confusion crossed Dean’s face. “That’s…right before finals,” he said.

Cas thought for a moment. “Yes, I guess it is.”

“Are you still going to have to take them?”

“Finals?” Cas asked, tilting his head in confusion. “Yes. Hanukkah is a minor festival. I don’t need to take time off for it.”

“Oh. That’s good. I guess,” Dean said.

“The holidays this semester that I needed time off for have already passed,” Cas explained. “Do you remember when I went home in the middle of September?”

“Yeah,” Dean said. He had assumed it was a family thing and hadn’t wanted to pry by asking what it had been about.

“That was for the holidays I needed time off for,” Cas explained.

“Two and a half weeks?” Dean asked.

Cas nodded. “It made more sense than coming back for the days between and then going back home. I did work when I could at home.”

“What holidays were they?” Dean wondered aloud, sitting on his bed facing Cas.

Cas bookmarked his page and shifted so he was sitting facing Dean. “First was Rosh Hashanah, which is the first of the New Year, then Yom Kippur, which is the Day of Atonement, and then Sukkot, which is a harvest and pilgrimage festival.”

“You need time off for New Year’s?” Dean asked.

“Well, it isn’t like the secular New Year,” Cas explained. “There isn’t so much celebrating in the same sense.”

“How?”

“It’s kind of a long description,” Cas said, prepared to leave it at that.

Dean shrugged. “I’ll listen. I want to know.”

Cas smiled. “Alright,” he said. “So it’s not a party. We spend most of the day in services.”

For most of the rest of the night, Cas patiently explained everything Dean asked him. At some point they ended up sitting next to each other on Dean’s bed, and it wasn’t until they were both yawning and Dean dozed off with his head on Cas’ shoulder that they stopped their conversation.

In the week that followed, Dean did his own research between study sessions for the upcoming final exams. He started with Hanukkah, determined to have a good holiday for Cas. Cas had already mentioned that he wouldn’t be able to light the candles because the school didn’t allow any candles in the dorm rooms. Cas had said it wasn’t a big deal, but Dean didn’t like that Cas wouldn’t be able to celebrate his holiday.

On December 6th, Dean wasn’t at dinner. Granted, Cas usually went straight from the library to dinner at about six, even on the weekends. He had come from his last minute studying for finals that would start the next day, and he had expected Dean to meet him at one of the tables on the lake, outside the cafeteria, which was where they’d been eating dinner together for the past week.

Cas only stayed at dinner for about ten minutes since he was by himself. It didn’t take long to eat, but he and Dean had been sitting around talking until the staff had asked them to put their plates up so they could finish closing the cafeteria for the night.

On the way back to the room, Cas looked up at the dorm building, looking for the window of the room he and Dean shared. He wasn’t sure if he’d started doing it in the past week, or if he’d only in the past week become aware that he had been doing it at all. In either case, he felt a smile spread across his face whenever he saw that the light was on as he walked to the door to the building.

Now, Cas paused. He squinted up at the window curiously, counting off again to make sure he was looking at the right one. He counted again, just to double check. Yes, that was the correct one, the window on the second floor, third from the left. There was a Hanukkah Menorah in the window, an electric one, not yet turned on, but back-lit from the light in the room, so it was presented as a silhouette in the window frame.

Cas made his way up to the room. He was caught off guard when several people wished him a Happy Hanukkah as they made their way down to dinner. When he made it to his hallway, he noticed that there was a sign on his door that read “Happy Hanukkah!” with “ _Chag Sameach_ ” written in Hebrew below it. It was obviously a homemade sign, printed carefully on a sheet of printer paper and taped to the door.

He wasn’t sure what he expected when he opened the door, but he was glad to find Dean sitting at his desk studying, rather than something overtly festive.

“Hey Cas,” Dean said, looking up when Cas entered. “Is that right?” he asked, pointing at the sign on the door.

Cas glanced at the sign again and nodded before shutting the door behind him.

“Good. I didn’t want to misspell something.”

“You did this?” Cas asked, noticing the electric Menorah on a table in front of the window, since there wasn’t an actual window sill to balance it on.

“Yeah,” Dean said, smiling broadly as he stood. “Happy Hanukkah Cas.”

Cas met Dean’s eyes and smiled. “Thank you, Dean.”

“And I managed to talk them into letting you light candles,” he said, pointing to the vanity that was built on top of the chest of drawers the school provided, between their closets.

Cas’ gaze followed Dean’s and he saw a proper Menorah, sitting in a shallow pan. There was about an inch of water in the pan, and the candles were beside it, waiting to be placed and lit.

“They said they’d make an exception for holiday candles, as long as they stayed over water, as a precaution. Is that okay?”

“Yes. That’s okay,” Cas replied.

“Good,” Dean said with a grin. “And then I read that you needed to display them, but putting candles that close to the blinds didn’t sound like a good idea, so I borrowed an electric one to put in the window.”

“Borrowed one?” Cas asked, looking back over at Dean curiously.

“Professor Goldberg had an extra one. I went to ask her if there was another way to display them, and she lent that one to me.”

Cas looked between the two Menorahs and then back at Dean. “You did this for _me_?” he asked, his head cocked curiously.

“Well, yeah. I figured if everyone could decorate for Christmas, you should be able to do Hanukkah,” Dean said with a shrug. “Go ahead, light them.”

Cas smiled and walked to the candles. He felt Dean walk up behind him as he placed the candles in their places. When the shammus candle was lit, he recited the blessings and lit the candle, the one on the far right.

“We won’t be here when the whole thing is lit, will we?” Dean asked.

Cas shook his head. “The last night to light the candles is the thirteenth. I leave Thursday.”

A disappointed look crossed Dean's face. “What about next year?”

“I don’t think so,” Cas said thoughtfully. “I haven’t checked.” He turned to find Dean only a few inches from him. He ducked his head and made his way to the window and plugged the electric Menorah in, tightening the appropriate bulbs to make them come on and give the appearance of candles.

When Cas turned back around, he noticed Dean was holding up a small bag. Before Cas could get a read on what might be in it, Dean tossed it to him. Cas caught it easily, and when he looked down he noticed it was a pouch of gelt.

Cas smiled and looked back up at Dean. “You didn’t have to do all this, you know,” he said.

“Sure I did,” Dean said with a grin.

“Do you have a dreidel?” Cas asked.

Dean shook his head. “It was hard enough to find a Menorah around here.”

Cas nodded. “I understand,” he said, and he walked to his closet. He pulled his suitcase out and rummaged through its pockets until he found his top. He held it up proudly. “Here, I’ll show you how to play, and then we can invite people over tomorrow and play.”

At first, Dean had trouble remembering which letter was which, but he caught on quickly. The game wasn’t as much fun with only two people, but Cas didn’t mind; it was fun to just play and laugh with Dean the night before finals.

“Thank you for this Dean,” Cas said when they finally decided to put the dreidel down and get ready for bed.

“Happy Hanukkah Cas,” Dean replied.

Cas smiled at Dean and hugged him. “No one’s done something like this for me before,” Cas said.

“Well, they should have,” Dean said, conviction in his voice.

They stood together like that for a moment. It felt natural, and Cas wondered briefly why he hadn’t done it sooner.

The candles had burned themselves out long ago, and the electric lights were still on. Cas flipped the light switch before climbing into bed, and Dean unplugged the electric lights from his bed when he was comfortable.

The next day, after Cas had finished the only exam he had that day, he went to the store to get more gelt for the dreidel game he wanted to have.

In the end, the game was larger than Cas thought it would be. He didn’t think that many people would want to put off studying to play a game, but several people were on board. Sam said he had done enough studying, and if he didn’t know it by now, he’d never learn it in time anyway. Charlie had a similar idea, and Jo and Kevin didn’t have finals until later in the week. Garth showed up halfway through the first game, but he proved to be lucky in the second.

They ended up playing in the dorm lounge because they didn’t all fit in a circle in Dean and Cas’ room. Cas turned the electric lights on before they left, but lit the candles when they were all together in the lounge.

They were awake far too long, and were reminded more than once that they were on 24 hour quiet hours for finals.

They played the next night too.

On Thursday, Cas left around lunch time. Dean helped him take his things to the parking lot to wait for his parents to pick him up.

“You should have your own car,” Dean said as they sat on the curb and waited.

Cas shrugged. “It’s not that big a deal. I can get a ride wherever I need to go.”

“Still,” Dean said. He said it as if he were annoyed, but his expression was joking.

“Are you saying you won’t give me a ride anywhere?” Cas challenged.

Dean laughed. “Good point,” he said.

They sat in companionable silence for the next few minutes until Cas’ parents pulled up in their sedan. Dean introduced himself and helped load the car.

When the car was loaded, Cas’ parents got back in and restarted it.

“Thank you,” Cas said, turning to Dean for a moment.

“Any time,” Dean said, smiling. “Happy Hanukkah.”

Cas smiled. “And you have a Merry Christmas,” he said. Dean pulled him in for a hug, and he rested his head on Dean’s shoulder for a moment. Before he realized what he was doing, he pressed a quick kiss to Dean’s cheek as he pulled back. Both were immediately pink.

“Sorry. I should get going,” Cas said, fumbling with the car’s handle.

“Hey,” Dean said, catching one of Cas’ hands in his own. He squeezed it gently. “I’ll see you next semester.” Dean wore a slight smile.

Cas smiled back. “Next semester,” he said, sliding into the car.

As soon as Cas’ door was closed, his father started driving. Cas glanced out the back window to see Dean waving at them. He waved back and buckled his seat belt.

“Is he your boyfriend?” Cas’ mother asked, watching him in the rear-view mirror.

“I hope so,” Cas said.

“He seems nice,” his father said.

“He did Hanukkah for me,” Cas said, and he told them about what had happened on Sunday and the days that followed.

Since Dean had seemed disappointed at not seeing the Menorah fully lit, Cas took a picture at home on the eighth night and sent it to him.

Dean’s reply was, “I’d like to see that in person sometime.”

Cas sat smiling at his phone until his mother asked him to help with the dishes.


End file.
